New Year’s Eve Time Zone Synchronicity
Cidu Bill on Dec 31st 2009
Eh, not really a great bit of synchronicity, I guess. Though as long as I’m here, I was wondering… Do any west-coast parents let their younger kids watch the Times Square ball fall at 9pm local time, convince the young’uns that they’ve stayed up until midnight, and then herd them into bed?
Elyrest: Here’s one to throw into your New Year’s Eve Time Zone Synchronicity. It even deals with the ball falling in another time zone. The strip’s “Home and Away”
Filed in Bill Bickel, Dilbert, Family Circus, Hi and Lois, New Year's Eve, Scott Adams, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | 23 responses so far
Chuck Dec 31st 2009 at 04:14 pm 1
West coaster here. We always stayed up until local midnight as kids, even years where there were no plans and our parents went to bed. We can read clocks, you know.
Elyrest Dec 31st 2009 at 04:25 pm 2
Having lived on the west coast a number of years the only place I guess you would see the ball fall at 9pm is on cable news shows. I don’t think children should be allowed to watch to watch those channels. Lordy, who knows what they might accidentally see.
Craig Dec 31st 2009 at 04:34 pm 3
Is it just me or is the Hi and Lois bordering on Arlo territory?
Elyrest Dec 31st 2009 at 04:54 pm 4
Craig - bordering, but not moving into. Although they didn’t get four children by just being good friends.
Karen Dec 31st 2009 at 04:59 pm 5
Eastern Standard Time here, and the adults in this house sometimes don’t make it till midnight. We let our oldest stay up way past his bedtime, watch movies, have snacks, but herd ourselves all into bed probably by 11, 11:30. The year will arrive whether or not I miss out on sleep!
Lgchrist Dec 31st 2009 at 05:20 pm 6
I grew up in eastern Nevada (Pacific time zone) in the 1960’s, we received our three television stations from Salt Lake City, Utah (Mountain time zone). It was fun to watch the Midnight Special at 11:00pm. (As far as Reno or Las Vegas televsion stations were concerned we did not exist even though we were in the same state). Because of prerecorded broadcasts from the Mountain time zone, we would watch the new year come in with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show at 10:00, then the ball drop from Times Square at 11:00pm. Somtimes we would stay up until 12:00 and have our own New Year celebration. Most times we went to bed right after 11:00, but then we’d be awaken at 12:00 by yahoos in the neighborhood shooting their guns into the air. In the mid 1970’s we finally got televison from Reno and Las Vegas whcih was a good deal. In the pre-VHS recorder days, you could watch a program on a Salt Lake City station then two hours later switch to a Nevada station and watch the program again or watch the program you previously missed a different statation.
yellojkt Dec 31st 2009 at 05:26 pm 7
In today’s Denis the Menace, New Years is at 8 pm, so we have three different times represented.
Frosted Donut Dec 31st 2009 at 05:46 pm 8
I was just talking to somebody today in Seattle who mentioned that some friends of his on Vashon Island (in Puget Sound) would celebrate a “New York New Year’s” by having friends over and watching the NY celebration on TV (local channels broadcast it). Everything’s wrapped up by nine, leaving people plenty of time to catch a ferry back to Seattle (no hotels on Vashon–you miss that last ferry, you’re sleeping in your car).
Charlene Dec 31st 2009 at 06:26 pm 9
I grew up in the Mountain Time Zone. Generally, the dropping of the ball wasn’t a big deal - we watched our local festivities instead. Something recorded two hours earlier rated pretty high on the “who cares” meter.
David Dec 31st 2009 at 07:27 pm 10
I too grew up in Mountain Time, which gets no respect in national broadcasts. Now I’m in Raleigh, where an Irish themed pub I frequent is having the midnight toast to Arthur Guinness at 7PM (GMT -5), to sync up with Ireland, and give the codgers an easy out.
Charlene Dec 31st 2009 at 07:44 pm 11
I’ve heard that the Mountain Time Zone gets no respect in the US. Here it does if only because it’s the second most populous time zone, after Eastern.
WhitneyD Dec 31st 2009 at 08:44 pm 12
West coaster! My kids are too little to stay up until midnight, but my parents let us stay up until 9 pm, watch the ball drop on a cable show- back when they were okay to watch for those sorts of things, and then it was off to bed.
Then I worked at Disneyland, where we had fireworks when every time zone hit midnight. That’s a lot of fireworks. And sadly, a lot of people with noisemakers.
Irene Dec 31st 2009 at 10:44 pm 13
We used to put the kids down for a nap around 2pm so they ….ahem….would be able to stay up until midnight. While they were asleep, we moved every clock ahead 2 hours, then woke them when the clocks read 6pm. We celebrated at midnoght ( really 10pm) then sent them off to bed! It helps that A. they were pretty young and B. we don’t watch TV!
Irene Dec 31st 2009 at 10:44 pm 14
we are east coast, BTW
furrykef Dec 31st 2009 at 11:45 pm 15
One thing that I find funny is there are all these references to going to bed before midnight, when for me, being wide awake at midnight is far more often the rule than the exception. Yet tonight I probably will be in bed before midnight.
furrykef Jan 1st 2010 at 01:08 am 16
Hm. I’m still up. Oh well.
Keera Jan 1st 2010 at 05:48 am 17
There have been a few New Year’s Eves where I wandered off to bed before midnight. I figured the switch to a new year would happen, anyway, with or without me being conscious (if you think about it, that’s how it is for a lot of people
).
In Norway, there’s usually a lot of fireworks being shot up between 8 and 9 pm, and that’s to accommodate the youngest children who can’t stay awake until midnight. No ball-dropping here, no time zones to fuss with. Just a simple acknowledgment that staying up until midnight isn’t for everyone.
My true new year’s tradition happens on New Year’s Day, when I watch the new year’s concert from Vienna just after noon, CET (Central European Time). I like to be awake for it.
The Bad Seed Jan 1st 2010 at 11:25 pm 18
As for celebrating at a more reasonable time, the “Please Touch Museum” in Philadelphia has a great idea for New Year’s Eve: they count down to to NOON along with a big rowdy kids’ party (and again at 1 p.m. “to accommodate the large crowd of little party animals and their families”).
They ring in the New Year by “counting down the minutes to noon with music, Mummers, day-long interactive activities, and King Countdown, the museum’s official Countdown Marshal. As the Please Touch Museum Flag Corps lead the way, King Countdown will parade into Hamilton Hall to do the Mummers’ strut and dance with the junior revelers as they prepare for the countdown. As the minutes tick down, streamers and confetti will blast from the Countdown cannons to celebrate the New Year. The Countdown to Noon® celebration will be followed by a family dance party with DJ Prince Charming and King Countdown.”
mkilby Jan 4th 2010 at 04:06 am 19
I have never understood the fascination of “watching the ball drop”. Even as a kid it seemed like a very lame method of counting down to the new year.
Elyrest Jan 4th 2010 at 11:56 am 20
mkilby (#19) I agree. It reminds me of that old (geezer warning) Peggy Lee (Jerry Leiber/ Mike Stoller) song “Is That All Their Is”.
This “Daddy’s Home” comic for 12/31/09 depicted it nicely.
http://www.gocomics.com/daddyshome/2009/12/31/
DPWally Jan 4th 2010 at 12:17 pm 21
First time ever that Family Circus has matched an event in my life.
When I was 8 or 9 we had the neighbor kids over for a sleepover and celebrated New Years at 9pm, or New Years in Greenland as my mom announced while she released a shower of Gnip Gnop balls down the stairway.
Darren Jan 4th 2010 at 03:59 pm 22
I *wish* I could do that. In CA, I couldn’t find anything that was carrying the NY festivities live. I had to wait 3 hours to see a rerun with the big gleaming “LIVE” in the upper corner. I think I’m supposed to not know that we’re in different time zones….
Fox seemed to do something from Las Vegas interspersed with NY reruns, but it was even cheesier than watching the other channels.
And with KRON down the tubes, there don’t appear to be broadcasts of anything local anymore, either. bah
Liz Jan 28th 2010 at 10:45 pm 23
People on the West Coast might as well celebrate at 9 p.m., given they get to watch a repeat of the ball falling at Times Square three hours earlier. What’s lamer, celebrating at 9 p.m. or watching a repeat of people celebrating three hours earlier?
The strip “Flashbacks” by Patrick M. Reynolds recently explained the whole “ball dropping at midnight” custom. It was very interesting, as is that strip in general. I try to catch it every week in the Sunday Washington Post.